7/25/09 – All-Star Game 2 (Hiroshima)

The All-Pacific team made sure honours were even for the 2009 All-Star games as they came out on top on a rainy evening in Hiroshima.

The PL team hit a total of four home runs during the game with Seibu’s Nakamura and Lotte’s Saburo both going deep once, and eventual game MVP Softbank’s Matsunaka hitting two homers.

Miyamoto was the only starter not named Aoki from the Swallows and he had a good evening, going 2 for 3 with a double and a solo homer. Aikawa also made an appearance later on and grounded out during his only plate appearance.

Game 1’s MVP Aoki had a night more akin to his 2009 performance so far as he went 0 for 5. I believe he was the only CL player to play for the whole of both games, which is either a sign of his post-WBC superstar status, or a sign that Giants/All-Central manager Hara was trying to not give him any rest whatsoever with an eye on the second half of the season’s pennant race.

Lim Chang-Yong also made an an appearance pitching a hitless 8th inning, and in fact was the only one of the six CL pitchers not to give up a run tonight.

Oh, and Yoshinori once again undertook the first base coaches duties.

The game itself was a close affair for the fist half, with the teams tied at 3-3 going into the 6th inning, but Matsunaka’s second dinger of the night (a two-run shot) in the 6th gave the PL a lead that they never surrendered.

Aoki did come to the plate with two outs and two men on in the bottom of the 9th, but couldn’t replicate his late heroics of the night before as he grounded out to end the game.

With the All-Star games now out of the way, Tokyo return to CL action this week with home series against the Carp and the Dragons from Tuesday evening.

David is a baseball bothering Brummie who spends a fair portion of his life fretting over the Tokyo Swallows and the WORLD'S GREATEST FOOTBALL TEAM, Aston Villa. He completes the quartet of abusive sporting relationships by being a die hard New York Knicks and Mets fan. You can find him on twitter: @yakulto